According to a new United Nations report, by 2030, demand for food will rise by 50%, for energy by 45% and for water by 30%.

The same report concludes that growing inequality, environmental decline and “teetering” economies mean the world must change the way it does business. One of the main factors for this, according to the report, is the world’s addiction to fossil fuels. It says that subsidies on them should end, and governments must look beyond the standard economic indicator of GDP.

The report makes some very incisive observations and no words are minced in the findings: “The current economic model is ‘pushing us inexorably towards the limits of natural resources and planetary life support systems’.”

Sadly, we have heard all this before and although the UN is constantly drawing up such reports and we can see it all unfolding around us, nobody takes action. Like a nest of ants, we are stripping our ecosystem clean and our population is exploding to levels which are unsustainable.

But what say does the UN have? Just as this report came out, European leaders were converging in Brussels for the latest EU summit, which will, no doubt, be as inconclusive as the others.

Just a couple of years ago, before the economic crisis broke out, the EU was talking about climate change. Now they only talk about stimulating the economy and oil and it does not look like anything is set to change.

But the UN has warned that the world cannot continue to do business as it is if we are to thrive and be sustainable. Something has got to give. There have already been murmurings of the death of Capitalism and a shift towards a Chinese style model where the state does regulate investment and growth.

The report also states that the number of people living in poverty is declining, but the number of hungry people is rising while inequality in wealth distribution is rising. Around the world, access to clean water is increasing, but 2.6 billion people lack access to modern sanitation. The report also concluded that the financial crisis was partly caused by market rules that encourage short-termism and do not reward sustainable investment.

The report includes 56 recommendations that would, if implemented in full, have profound implications for societies, governments, and businesses.

Governments would build the true environmental costs of products into the prices that people pay to purchase them, leading to an economic system that protects natural resources.

Goods would be labelled with information on their environmental impact, enabling consumers to make more informed purchasing decisions.

In addition, the report proposes that governments would change the regulation of financial markets to promote longer-term, more stable and sustainable investment, rather than the make a fast buck mentality which is the current modus operandi.

The truth is that these are all viable proposals, but the world has to make a commitment to take them up. It seems as though the more the crisis bites, the more we turn to growth and consumption stimulus, continuing to deplete the planet’s resources. Perhaps in order to save the planet, we have to actually accept to live with less and reduce growth. Many will balk at what has been written, but it does actually make sense. We say it with conviction – the Capitalist system’s major flaws are that it is inspired by short-term gain and materialistic consumption. The world’s resources are being depleted by this very same system. What if we all actually bite the bullet and accept that by making do with a little bit less, we might actually prolong the lifespan of this tiny blue planet.